Alexandra Rose Howland

Wafa and one of her brothers inside their home in Harsham IDP camp in Erbil, Iraq. Wafa, 15, suffers from a severe growth hormone deficiency and has lost much of her eye sight. The oldest of 10 siblings, Wafa and her family fled Sinjar in 2014 as ISIS took control.

I had the absolute pleasure of speaking with for her podcast The Messy Truth this month. Gem is an incredible person to work with and I’m so thrilled to have this conversation out!

When I first went to Iraq back in 2017, I never imagined that this would be the body of work I would come away with, nor that it would change me so drastically. Leave and Let Us Go has been a project 5 years in the making and it has redefined who I am as an artist and photographer.

I am deeply grateful to each person who trusted me with their images and for the continued collaboration throughout the last few years. To .aljaffal, who I have leaned on heavily to bring this body of work to life, and to , who made the impossible tasks remarkably simple, Im beyond grateful to you both.

, you took on this project and painstakingly laboured over each and every spread. Two years of skype calls and endless back and forth-I dare say we succedded.

Leave and Let Us Go can be purchased through GOST as well as on my website.